Friday, March 29, 2013

How I make a painting. A tutorial.

Kenney Mencher, In Martini Veritas, oil on canvas
36"x48"

In Martini Veritas: How to Plan, Photograph, Draw, and make a PaintingKenney Mencher

Sure, I would love to work exclusively from live models
but the reality is I cannot afford to have a model sit for the thirty to
forty hours it takes for me to make a painting. For this reason,
being an economically challenged painter sometimes means that you also
need to learn how to be a photographer. If you do, you’re in good
company, Eric Fischl, John Currin, Gerhard Richter, Anders Zorn and even
Degas all use or used photography. Using photographs and especially
digital photographs can even have unseen benefits both in terms of content
and technique.

Photographed with a flashPhotographed without a flash

Using Digital PhotographyI keep a sketchbook with thumbnails and lists of ideas.
When I get enough ideas for paintings together and I have an idea of what
kinds of ideas will work with the models I have available I do a photo
shoot. In the shoot, I pose the models and take multiple versions
of the same pictures. I often will under expose and underexpose knowing
that each shot captures different things that the naked eye may automatically
be able to see. I will also take at least one shot with the flash
on for the same reason. By bracketing my exposures, I am able to
see more subtle variations in skin tone and value in both the darks and
lights. Manipulating these photos on my computer using Adobe Photoshop,
I am able to push the value structure even further and manipulate color
as well as value in the images I work from.I actually work directly from the computer screen since
the screen is more luminescent than an ink jet print. This also allows
me the benefit of playing with exposures and magnifying sections of the
image with out having to print out tons of extra copies. It saves
money and time.

The canvas underpainted with colored acrylic. The
drawing is done in charcoal pencil but is incomplete until I use tools
such as T-squares and ellipse guides to draw the martini glasses.

Preparing the Canvas and the Underdrawing I prepare the canvas with tube acrylics mixed with acrylic
gesso for some tone and color. In this painting, my underpainting
of acrylic corresponds roughly to the colors of the painting I will be
putting on top of it. I then lightly sketch out the figures basic
shapes and where I think the light breaks across planes and drapery with
a charcoal pencil. I keep these outlines super light. I also
do some minor “plastic surgery” on the models to make the painting work
just a little bit better. For example, in the female figures I’ve
moved the hair a bit, strengthened the jaw line and changed the angle of
the shoulder. When I’ve finished sketching out the people and corrected
or distorted the anatomy of the figures so that they will work better in
a painting. Things that work in a photograph don’t always translate
into painting and drawings and so I find I cannot rely solely on how the
camera portrays some elements. This is why I chose to crop the image
the way I did and to discard the bend in the wall to the left of the two
characters.The lens of a simple digital camera is often designed
to be multipurpose. These “one size fits all” lenses tend to be a
bit more distorting then regular analog cameras. The foreground to
background size distortions are exaggerated by this. You can
compensate for these scale distortions by photographing your initial set
up shots from far away and then moving in for detail shots. I also
rely on my knowledge of perspective or just redraw things by eye to be
a more realistic scale than the camera depicts them. I’ve also found working from any photograph that the camera’s
depiction of verticals and horizontals should be ignored. If you
look at the bend in the wall to the left side of the two characters in
the reference photo you may notice that vertical line where the two walls
meet seems to lean towards the left. In a photograph, we don’t question
this, in a painting it looks like a mistake. I square up the edges of these elements to correspond
to established rules of perspective. The vertical and horizontal
lines are drawn to parallel the edges of the picture plane. When
I draw out things like doorways, bottles, and in th is case martini glasses
and a martini shaker, essentially anything with a vertical line running
through them, I straighten and check any vertical or horizontal lines with
a tee square. I also like to use the tee square and ellipse
guides to augment my drawing skills of ellipses. The funny thing
is that although I use these guides in my under drawing I sometimes change
them a bit as I paint them to get the right feel. Most of the battle
for a good painting starts in the planning phases. If the foundational
drawing is accurate and feels correct, I can usually pull of a good painting.
Having a consistent working method and planning the colors is also something
that will make the painting go more smoothly.

The completed martini glasses and shakers.

Materials, Tools, and Palette of ColorsMy worktable is made from to large tempered sheets of
glass laid across a piece of plywood. I use a tuna can for my odorless
solvent, a cloth rag, a phone book that I use to wipe brushes, knives on.
I use toilet paper for final clean up. I mix my colors with
large plaster knives.I use several different kinds of brushes. For the
large areas and for blocking in I use large synthetic brights. Usually
these large blocking in brushes is in the 12 and 8 sizes. I also
use a large sable fan brush to smooth out things like backgrounds and large
stretches of cloth or drapery although I do not use the fan brush to work
on the figures or still life objects. For smaller areas, I use synthetic
filberts to push the paint around and to block in areas, especially in
still life and figures but then I use sable filberts in a variety of sizes
to work out transitions and details.I use several mediums depending on what I am painting.
For skin and still life I tend to use a medium mixed from one part dammar
varnish, one part stand oil and four parts turpentine (not paint thinner).
I use turpentine for mixing my medium because odorless paint thinner is
not strong enough to dissolve the dammar in the mixture, however, I do
use odorless paint thinner to clean my brushes. For rendering drapery,
I use straight linseed oil or Gamblin’s galkyd painting medium.
My mediums are kept and squeezed out of squeeze bottles I got from a beauty
store.My palette of colors is consistent from painting to painting.
I rarely add colors and I use every single color I have on my palette for
every painting. I like to use Gamblin paints for the majority of
my colors although occasionally I will substitute some other cheaper brands.
I also use Winsor Newton’s soft mixing white because I’ve found that it
really is softer and more pliable than some other whites I’ve tried.
My palette is laid out in the following order. Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Alizarin,
Scarlet, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Red Light, Orange, Cadmium Yellow, Lamp Black,
Payne’s Grey,Since I’m a very systematic and planned painter I also
like to mix a majority of the colors before I even begin painting an object
or a figure. This kind of “paint by numbers” approach is a way in
which I can manage my anxiety, experiment, and keep my palette consistent.
In order to do this I also have to think and plan the color scheme and
mixtures for the entire painting.

A Plan of AttackBefore I begin working, I look at the color of the overall
light. I carefully observe the direction of the light and note the
warm and cool relationships of the colors of walls, drapery, objects and
skin. Using what I’ve observed for a moment I edit my plan of color
by intentionally redesigning the existing color scheme. I consciously
plan to exaggerate and caricature the colors from the photo since they
are just a touch washed out to me. I decide which colors I will intensify
and which warm cool relationships I will heighten to make these colors
more brilliant and interesting. Painting the BackgroundNext, I plan and rehearse the order that I will paint
the things in the painting. I usually begin a painting also by working
background to foreground. By this, I mean, I paint the stuff that
is behind anything first and so that the edges of things are crisper as
I move into overlapping items. For this painting, I started with
the wall behind the figures.These photographs were shot with natural north light in
my dining room. The light came in from the right hand side window
and moved across the figure from right to left. North light is a
little different from halogen or incandescent light sources because in
the lights areas the light is cool and the shadows tend to be warm browns.
That means that the colors I mixed from dark to light also needed to be
warm shadows and cool highlights. For the darks, I mixed a combination
of burnt umber, white, and a touch of lampblack. The middle tones
consist of lamp black and white. The lights are white and a touch
of Payne’s grey.I paint from dark to light and so I began painting the
darks with a bit of my premixed medium to smooth them out and speed the
drying time a bit. As I paint, I mix from my three existing blobs
of colors and reblend the colors with my brush before transferring them
to the canvas. Each step I add a bit more from the light blobs
to the darker ones until I reach the lightest areas. I’m careful
to check over the surface to make sure I’ve covered the background and
overlapped the edges and contours of the outer shapes of the figures’ heads,
faces, and drapery. I then go over the entire surface of the background with
a sable fan brush to even the tones out. I do this also from
dark to light. Occasionally I wipe the brush with a dry piece of
toilet paper. Then I move on to thinking about the next background,
which is, in this case, the table cloth on which that arms of the figures,
glasses, and martini shaker overlap.

Painting the TableclothThe tablecloth, which is a washed out cream color in the
photo, is not enough of a color statement for me. I want it to be
much warmer so that the cool wall in the background recedes and the tablecloth
jumps forward more. In my rendition of the tablecloth, I chose
to make the dominant color a yellowish cream color rather than the neutral
one in the photo. Again, I work from dark to light.The first thing I do is to lay down the areas of deepest
shadows under the arms resting on the table and in the darkest folds.
This darkest value is burnt umber and a touch white. This is
laid in with a mixture of linseed oil and odorless paint thinner in a fairly
thin or transparent wash. The second darkest values are laid into the shadowy area
furthest away from the light source and then into some areas in the lighter
part of the cloth. This is made from burnt sienna, yellow ochre,
burnt umber, and white. The third tone, which is the majority of the body tone
of the lighter areas of the cloth and for the highlights, consists of yellow
ochre, with a touch of burnt umber, lamp black, and a lot of white.
The lampblack adds a cooling effect leaning towards blueish north light.
It’s about as cool as a yellow cream color can get. When I’ve completed
painting the entire cloth, I go back over the surface and rework some of
the value and tonal transitions with sable brushes and a sable fan brush.
I used to think that using a fan brush was amateurish but I tried it one
or twice and was able to get some really nice blended effects.As I did with the background, I make sure I save the left
over colors that I’ve used to render the tablecloth because I know that
I will be using these colors again in the glasses and the reflective martini
shaker. The tablecloth will also reflect some of its color onto the
skin of the models, especially the forearms where they meet the table.

The completed table cloth.

Painting the Figure’s FaceHuman flesh tones, whether Caucasian, African, or Asian
are some sort of an orange. This orange is then mixed with either
browns or complimentary colors to cool or warm it/lighten or darken it.
I start painting human flesh by premixing three main large orange colors
that are also related to value. I change the formula based on how
pink or brown each person is. Since these two models are both fairly
pale and so as the flesh tones move into the north light of the lightest
areas the flesh tones will be cooler towards the light and warmer in the
shadowed areas. The darkest tone/hue is mixed from cadmium orange, burnt
sienna, a touch of lampblack, white, and a little bit of raw ochre.The middle tone/hue is mixed from cadmium orange, burnt
sienna, a touch of lampblack, a little bit of yellow ochre, and much more
white.For the lightest tone, I use cadmium orange, lampblack,
and a lot of white. The black cools off and neutralizes the orange
slightly. I will also mix other colors into these main body colors
to modify them for sections of the face and hands. For example,
in the nose and cheeks I usually add a little bit of cadmium red light
to pink them up a bit. If the person is excited or flushed, I may
intensify this effect with other reds such as scarlet or even a touch of
alizarin crimson. In male characters’ beard areas, I often use a
touch of Payne’s grey to show the hair under the skin.In painting the female figure’s face, I start by thinking
again about layering. The cheek of the figure overlaps the hair behind
it. The darkest tones are a warm black, almost a purple. Using
a number 8 synthetic bright, I start with a thin wash of medium, and lampblack,
mixed with alizarin and scarlet for the darks. Using a small synthetic
filbert, I also paint the darks of the face such as nostrils, eyelids and
the crease in the lips with this wash tone. Most of these darks will
be painted back over and I expect them to mix with the subsequent layers
of colors. This gives the shadows a warm gray purplish tone and,
almost randomly, tends to add a bit of variation in color to the lighter
areas. Next, using a number 12 synthetic bright, I mix medium
in to create a very liquid wash of the darkest tone/hue that was mixed
from cadmium orange, burnt sienna, a touch of lampblack, white, and a little
bit of raw ochre. I wash this in to all of the darkest areas of the
face. Using the same brush and a lot of painting medium I then wash
in the medium tones. Grabbing from the same piles of premixed color I then
use a variety of brushes in varying sizes to ease and blend the tonal structure.
To paint the lips and cheeks I mix the colors from the premixed blobs. While I’m working, I blow up areas of the photo on my
computer to see specific areas and see subtle color variations in these
areas.To modify tint and color I then add other colors to the
flesh tones with a sable brush. For example, the lower lip is tinted
with cadmium red medium. For the shadow of the upper lip I add a
bit of burnt sienna. The cheeks and nose are pinked up a bit with
the addition of a little bit of cadmium red light. I use these same
formulas for the knuckles of the hands. Next, the hair is begun with a dark tone mixed from mainly
lamp black but a touch of alizarin and scarlet are added. I mix two
separate grays for the hair for cool and warm strands of hair. The
warm grays of the hair are mixed from burnt umber and white. The
cool grays are mixed from black and white. Because the paint is so
fluid, the layers tend to mix together as I paint them creating variations
in tone and color.Next, I move on to the other hand holding the martini
glass. I paint this hand in a similar manner to the face, using the
same premixed colors that I have already prepared.

Hair face and hands completed!

The Figure’s DressI think of the drapery in the same way that I paint the
flesh tones. In this instance, I’ve mixed two main batches of gray
blue color. The darker tones are Payne’s gray with a touch of, black,
white and burnt umber. The lighter tones are a similar mixture
with a higher proportion of the blue and white spectrum since this is painted
in North light I will want the dress highlights to be cooler and bluer.Using a number 12 synthetic bright, I mix medium in to
create a very liquid wash of the darkest tone/hue. I use a different
medium for painting cloth. Because I want the paint to tack up more
slowly, I use straight linseed oil to thin the paint a bit. The darks
of the dress are a thin washes of black mixed in with the darkest tone.
I gradually add the next dark tone at the edges of the darkest creases.
The middle tones are mixed from the lighter batch of color and are also
thinned down a bit with straight linseed oil. I tend to go back in
and blend the medium steps with a smaller synthetic or a sable brush as
I work each area. While I’m working, I blow up areas of the
photo on my computer to see specific areas of the drapery, looking for
things like reflected light, and core shadows.The last step, after I’ve gotten the buttons painted in
is to look for the highlights. Notice that at this point I’m beginning
to anticipate the edge of the martini glass. I look for how the glass
interferes and lightens the color passing through it. The dresses
and glasses highlights are mixed out from the lightest tone with a touch
more Payne’s gray and white. As you can see, my large glass palette
is becoming filled up with the colors that I’ve used to paint the background,
flesh, tablecloth and dress. I make sure I have saved the leftover
colors I’ve mixed because I will need it to paint the martini glasses and
the reflections in the martini shaker.

My palette so far.

The Martini Glass and ShakerThe secret to painting transparent and reflective surfaces
such as glass and metal is to not look at the over all shape of the object
but to look at the abstract shapes of colored areas created by refraction
and reflection. For example, the background wall’s color is picked
up in the top of the glass in the highlights of the rim and stem.
This color is also reflected back in the liquid. Even some flesh
tones are refracted throughout the glass, and that olive, mixed from white,
Payne’s grey and yellow ochre, shows up in a bunch of different reflections
in the glass. In the male figure’s glass, the color of the dress
is also picked up in the right hand side of the glass. Notice that
I actually had to paint the watch, arm, and hand, of the male figures first
before I painted the martini glass to make sure that edges and reflections
worked the way they should.

The painting so far.

The Male Figure’s Arm and Hand in the ForegroundMuch of this next section is a repetition of the female’s
face and hands but I thought it would be nice if I went over some of the
bony landmarks and problems that I encounter when painting a hand and fingers.
I use the same blobs of premixed flesh tones that I mixed for the female
but then remix them again with a bit more orange and burnt sienna to vary
the flesh tones between figures. Using a number 12 synthetic bright, I start with a thin
wash of medium, and lampblack, mixed with alizarin and scarlet for the
darks. I pay special attention to the bony landmarks at the knuckles
of the back of the hand where the first set of phalanges fold. I
also try to visualize the radius and ulna under the skin at the wrist and
especially the joint the makes up the elbow where the radius, ulna, and
humorous, join. If you look at a skeleton, you’ll actually see that
the bones over lap and turn over each other in an odd and unexpected manner.
Visualizing these bony landmarks allows me to get the contours correct
and to find the planes where the light breaks.Next, using a number 12 synthetic bright, I mix medium
in to create a very liquid wash of the darkest tone/hue that was mixed
from cadmium orange, burnt sienna, a touch of lampblack, white, and a little
bit of raw ochre. I wash this in to all of the darkest areas of the
face. Using the same brush and a lot of painting medium I then wash
in the medium tones. The edge of the knuckles is accentuated to remind
me of how the light breaks. I will smooth this transition out later.Grabbing from the same piles of premixed color I mix in
a little bit of the tablecloth color into the dark part of the forearm
to show the reflected light. The forearm and draker parts of the
arm are warmer colors then the fingers that face the light. Again,
I blow up areas such as knuckles and fingers of the photo on my computer
to see specific areas and see subtle color variations in these areas.
Look at all the grayish purple poking out under the layers in the core
shadows of the knuckles and the forearm. The light highlights of
the knuckles are exaggerated a bit with a touch of white mixed with black.Using smaller sable brushes the rest of the hand is a
series of small refinements using many of the colors I’ve mixed on the
palette. I refine the veins in the back of the hand, look for the
tendons and bone ridges on the front of the fingers, and then reestablish
some highlights created by striations in the skin running in horizontal
bands.

Kenney Mencher, In Martini Veritas, oil on canvas
36"x48"

The Black ShirtI painted the black shirt last so that I would get a crisp
edge to the sleeve where it fell over the forearm. Again, I made
sure I planned the layering to create crisp and rational edges to the overlapping
forms. For example, I painted the background sleeve first, then the
blue gray panel on the front of the shirt and then the foreground sleeve.
I’ve been calling it a “black shirt” but this may be a misnomer.This shirt is not “black” rather it is a series of warm
and cool grays. The front panel is a lighter and cooler gray that
is mixed from, Payne’s gray, black, a touch of umber, and white.
The back and darkest areas of the shirt are alizarin and lamp black.
The light areas of the sleeve are mixed from alizarin and lamp black and
white making a different and warmer gray then the bluish gray panel on
the front of the shirt.Voila! Finished!Kenney Mencher

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About Me

I used to be a tenured professor of art history and studio art at Ohlone College in Fremont but in 2016 I decided to resign/retire to make art full time. I still "teach" on line and you can sign up for my art marketing and art history courses here: